Italy’s antitrust watchdog slapped Amazon with a hefty $1.28 billion fine in December — but that’s only its latest salvo in a string of moves against Big Tech.
Renaud Foucart, a senior economics lecturer at the U.K.'s Lancaster University, told CNBC that the substantial monetary sanction on this occasion is part of a trend of national regulators acting against Big Tech firms because wider EU-level investigations can be"very slow."
The sanctions vary greatly in their size but carry a similar message: National regulators will take action in their home markets. "Certain competition authorities in Europe are way more inclined to go for sector inquiries or market studies where they think that there is an environment where there might be some problems rather than waiting for complaints coming in," she said.
However, she said, there will be issues of budget, resources and capacity, with regulators of all shapes facing hurdles with increasingly large digital workloads. She said she's in favor of regulators taking interim measures against companies, for example by ordering the halting or restriction of a particular activity during an investigation rather than waiting until the probe concludes, which could take years.
The DMA will tighten rules for large tech companies — so-called gatekeepers — that are dominant in the market to prevent abuses. It will also introduce greater scrutiny of deals on mergers and acquisitions.
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